Whey, what most dairy processors produce as a byproduct of cheese making and yogurt production, just can’t be sent off to the publicly owned water treatment works (POTW) without pretreatment because of its large BOD and COD. And processors have realized that throwing this byproduct out is like throwing money down the drain when it and its derivatives can be sold to food processors and nutraceutical manufacturers as valuable input ingredients.

Problem is: Processing whey on site adds a complexity of more equipment to operate and maintain, and producing whey derivative products isn’t the yogurt processor’s forte. Thus, some processors offload whey processing to a third party, do enough pretreatment to meet the requirements of the POTW and/or sell off the rest to farms as a feed supplement.